[culture] The Connecticut shootings

I’ve already said most of what I would say about the Connecticut shootings. Now, on chemo when I am cognitively impaired and my filters are compromised, is not the time for me to try to say more. I’ll leave you with one thought of my own, and one from someone else.

As for my part, consider this. Zero guns would equal zero gun violence. By definition. There must be some midpoint between zero and 300,000,000 guns where 30,000 people don’t have to die every year of suicide, homicide and accidental shootings.

The shooting in the mall in your neighbourhood got a tiny article write-up in the back of the local paper here and no TV news coverage at all. Meanwhile, the Connecticut shooting largely dominated the TV news today and yesterday. Why? Because – sad as it is – someone in the US flipping out and shooting at random people isn’t big news here anymore, because it happens far too often. So a shooting in the US only hits the main TV news and the front pages when it involves a very large number of victims, children or anything else that makes a shooting “spectacular”. Otherwise, amok shootings are just something that happens in the US from time to time like hurricanes or tornadoes or wildfires – newsworthy only when it’s particularly bad.

But much as I hope that gun laws in the US will be tightened after the horrible shooting in Connecticut, I doubt it will happen. There’s still too many people who believe they need guns to defend themselves from whatever it is these people are afraid of.